Each of us, transsexual and non-transsexual, develop a view of the world as we grow up - a view that validates our existence, gives us a reason for being, a justification for the nuttinesses that each of us might have. Most non-transsexuals have cultural norms on which to pin their world view, broadcast by magazines, television, cinema, electronic bulletin boards, and the continually growing list of communications environments.

Since transsexuals in this culture are neither fairly nor accurately represented in the media, nor championed by a community, we develop our world views in solitude. Alone, we figure out why we’re in the world the way we are. The literature to date on the transgender experience does not help us to establish a truly transgender world view in concert with other transgender people, because virtually all the books and theories about gender and transsexuality to date have been written by non-transsexuals who, no matter how well-intentioned, are trying to figure out how to make us fit into their world view.

- Kate Bornstein, Gender Outlaw (1995: 63)

Whereas Westerners feel uncomfortable with the ambiguities and contradictions inherent in such in-between categories as transvestism, homosexuality, hermaphroditism, and transgenderism, and make strenuous attempts to resolve them, Hinduism not only accommodates such ambiguities, but also views them as meaningful and even powerful.

- Serena Nanda, Neither Men Nor Women: The Hijras of India (1990)

More than ever, gay and lesbian people who conform to gender norms seem poised for mainstream acceptance, while discrimination against gender-norm transgression remains legal…transgender issues are now clearly the cutting edge of the social justice agenda. The growing acceptability of transgender representation in mass media, and the increasing comfort younger people seem to have with transgender and genderqueer identities and behaviors, suggests that sometime in the future - perhaps the near future - transgender people will finally be accepted as full, equal members of society. But much work remains to be done.

Susan Stryker, Transgender History (2008: 152-3)

loriadorable:

Be You: A trans man on feminism and bodily autonomy

“When trans men are arbitrarily accused of misogyny, it boils down to the erroneous idea that all men are misogynists[…] When we feminists[…]”

Male privilege at its finest. Hey, bro, all men *are* misogynist, and it’s not just transphobic feminists that don’t want you using the feminist label and speaking for women. At best, you’d be feminist-allied…but you clearly are not.

I swear this week is trans men demonstrating their raging male privilege week (see also: Angel, Buck.) 

I fail to see how the author of this article was “demonstrating raging male privilege” just because he identifies as a feminist - it seems like an article expressing solidarity and awareness of intersectionality to me, which is exactly what the Third Wave is supposed to be about. According to the dictionary, the definition of feminist goes as follows: “A person whose beliefs and behavior are based on feminism”. The dictionary definition doesn’t mention anything about the person’s gender - only their views. Secondly, saying that all men are misogynist is like saying that all whites are racist, or that all heterosexuals are homophobic.

To be honest, I think that reactions like these are exactly what make some men afraid to engage with the feminist movement. I saw another guy (presumably cis) post on The F-Word about his feminist beliefs, only to be berated for it in one of the comments, being told that he would do well to stay out of feminism as it was just for women. Feminism is indeed for women, but that doesn’t mean that men shouldn’t take part in the movement. The gay rights movement is for gays, but straight people should always be welcome to join and be allowed to call themselves gay rights activists, irrespective of their sexual orientation.

(For the record, I agree with you on Buck Angel - he really is a jerk!)

An excerpt from Paris Lees’ article about the misrepresentation of trans people in the media, available here: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/08/31/lies-about-transgender-people-and-how-to-spot-a-rubbish-journalist/

I question everything, now. I recall articles from years back, on various subjects; “facts” stuck in my head; fears I was given; health advice. Were all those items poorly researched too? I see so much rot written about trans people that I just don’t know anymore. Does anyone – from legal correspondents to sports editors – really know what they’re writing about? And, if not, why read their work? News is produced on increasingly small budgets and research is becoming a luxury. Press standards are under scrutiny. Would cynics be better off reading blogs by real experts?

So, how can you tell if what you’re reading is rubbish? I have no idea how much of my daily news is true, but a visit to Islamophobia-Watch.com suggests that trans people are not the only minority group newspapers lie about. Still, there are 6 giveaways for poorly written trans features:

1.   Sex Change. This is seldom used by trans people and has zero medical currency. Authors who use this have nothing valuable to share on trans issues.

2.   Children having “sex changes”. Always false. In the UK, trans surgery is only performed on those aged 18 and above. Children prescribed reversible puberty blockers will have been monitored for years following careful guidelines.

3.   Hermaphrodite. Widely offensive and biologically inaccurate. Humans with biological sex differences are described as intersex. Or people.

4.   Taxpayers/NHS waste of money/cosmetic surgery. Don’t trust anyone who mentions tax during a polemic against trans people. Trans people also pay taxes, and we are more likely to do so when provided with proper healthcare and freedom from discrimination. Nevertheless, “wasteful” trans treatment costs are frequently exaggerated.

5.   “Gender” – in quotation marks. Everyone has a gender identity. Clothing, language, toilets and many other arbitrary social cogs are gendered. Pretending that trans people have imagined their gender is, well, delusional.

6.   Regret. Studies show that an astonishing 98 per cent of people who undergo genital surgery express no regret. Regret usually focuses on surgical results. Any journalist who mentions transition regret, without acknowledging this, has made a terrible mistake.

Ultimately, for me, the biggest weakness of [Cordelia] Fine’s neurosexism allegation is the mistaken blurring of science with politics. Her book reads as a polemic about the implicit political bias underlying the science of sex differences. However, this ignores that you can be a scientist interested in the nature of sex differences while being a clear supporter of equal opportunities and a firm opponent of all forms of discrimination in society. One endeavour need have nothing to do with the other. Fusing science with politics is, in my view, unfounded.

Simon Baron-Cohen, 2010, Delusions of gender - ‘neurosexism’, biology and politics

senor-bizarro:

harrybenjaminsyndrome:

Whilst it may very well be a possibility that many are in denial about their sexualities/genders, I’m with toplioncub when he says that he doesn’t like accusing individual people of being in denial. I particularly hate it because:

a) no one really knows how anyone else thinks or feels, so accusing someone of being “an X in denial” is to accuse them of having a sense of false consciousness, insinuating that we know what goes through their head better than they themselves do.

b) people do it all the time with transsexuals - accuse trans women/trans men of respectively being gays/lesbians in denial.

It is intriguing though why someone like GNQ would spend so many hours running an anti-trans blog. I’ve expressed a few anti-SJW sentiments on this blog, but expressing them is not its primary purpose (Tumblr social justice warriors annoy me to no end, but I’ve got better things to think about in life). I don’t like organised religion either, but I haven’t got a blog against that - I would rather spend my time reading books.

There could also be an alternate explanation. I’ve noticed that the gay men and lesbians who hate trans people the most also tend to be the most gender-nonconforming and the loudest about being gay. I think part of it is that transsexualism existing further feeds their fears of assimilation into mainstream, heterosexual society by forcing transition upon them. (Or alternately, forcing them to date trans people and thusly have “straight” sex forced upon them, thereby causing more paranoia that straight society is trying to assimilate them.)

OK, so they don’t want people to force them to transition (not that I, nor any other transsexual I know, was forced into it) and they don’t want to date transsexuals either. There’s a lot of things I don’t want to be forced into. I don’t want to be forced into having tattoos, but I don’t run anti-tattoo blogs vilifying those who exercise their legal right to have them done. I definitely don’t ever want to sleep with someone HIV+, but I don’t run an anti-HIV blog, writing hateful things about people who became infected. I simply let them get on with their lives.

To be honest, it baffles me why transphobes would think we would want to date them in the first place. Personally, I search for egalitarians as partners, not transphobic bigots.

actualtranssexual:

“Gender is a social construct!!1!”

Please explain to me how the difference in structure and function of female and male brains is a social construct.

People usually explain this one away with the term neural plasticity - the idea that brain structure changes to reflect one’s environment, experiences and socialisation. Whilst neural plasticity certainly is a real phenomenon, it has its limits and certain parts of the brain really do remain unchanged - which explains why we cannot cure certain behavioural conditions through psychotherapy. Unfortunately for those whose political ideology requires them to believe that gender is a social construct, gender stereotypes have been observed in newborn babies and in the animal kingdom - showing that must be neurological causes for gender.